Convenient Lies

One thing I have always valued as an artist is the truth. The truth cannot be compromised with, and in an age of mass advertising, political ambiguity, and social media it’s an idea that conquers all. The truth is saying,”I’m not ashamed to admit the way things really are.” To stick to the truth is to be fearless of the consequences.

Art at it’s core is funny in that it’s basically an artist crafting a lie to tell a powerful truth in the viewer’s eyes. Imagine I create a painting of a pipe for example; the picture is the lie (it’s actually paint on canvas) with the mood, color, feeling, or scene being the truth conveyed. I guess you could accuse me at that point of being a hypocrite. “You’re not convinced in telling truths, your painting of a pipe is just that, a painting of a pipe!”

Yes, but didn’t you as the viewer want to believe the lie? Didn’t you create the article of a pipe in your mind after seeing my craftly placed strokes on the page? This reveals the true nature of ourselves; our lives are oftentimes filled with convenient lies to simplify a complex world or derive a larger meaningfulness from it. (I didn’t come up with this pipe art analogy… check out the mind-bending works of good ole’ Rene Magritte. )

Illusions and paintings aside the truth is refreshing. It can set you free when you find yourself tangled up in all the half truths and white lies that can clutter up our lives very quickly. Consider my brief look at myself here:

I’m not afraid to say that I don’t make enough money in my life to do everything I want. I’m not ashamed to say that my life doesn’t match the ideal life I have envisioned for myself. Every moment I have in this world isn’t as beautiful and incredible as my Facebook profile shows or my Instagram feed displays. I’m not above showing myself to the world here through my past blog writings as an imperfect person with personal bias and confusion as to my goals on life.

It’s clear to me that the various Social Medias serve as a powerful “paintings” to represent whatever truth you want to convey to others. Some people just take a little more artistic liberty in what they decide to show to the world. The above paragraph sounds depressing, but wouldn’t you say it’s closer to reality then half the other personal posts you might find on Facebook, Twitter, ect.?

The purpose of listing my doubts here is not to garner sympathy, but simply to reveal the truth in hopes that others will see the truth in their own lives and not be afraid to express them. The moments I do have with my wife and family are great and beautiful I remember and cherish. I don’t regret any choices I have made leading up to this point in my life. It’s the good times that make life valuable and important while the bad times are remembered to teach us lessons.

You can’t cling to the notion that every moment will be easy, fun, or beautiful. Nobodies life is a constant stream of success or failure, we experience both and all the mixed emotions in between. I think we all go through a phase of self-destructive or indulgent behavior in our lives where we think everything is great or everything sucks, and it is natural to see the world in these narrow views from time to time based on our circumstances. How do you know the limitations of yourself without being tested?

It brings to mind the notion of Cognitive Dissonance, a psychological term coined by Leon Festinger. Summed up best on Wikipedia:

In psychology, cognitive dissonance is the mental stress or discomfort experienced by an individual who holds two or more contradictory beliefs, ideas, or values at the same time, or is confronted by new information that conflicts with existing beliefs, ideas, or values.

Leon Festinger’s theory of cognitive dissonance focuses on how humans strive for internal consistency. When inconsistency (dissonance) is experienced, individuals tend to become psychologically uncomfortable and are motivated to attempt to reduce this dissonance, as well as actively avoiding situations and information which are likely to increase it.

With this devotion to truthfulness one of the most difficult but necessary things I have had to learn is self discipline. It’s important to know when you need to change your own destructive habits for your own betterment. It’s hard to make this realization- it takes time and an incredible amount of forethought to look ahead to things you have to build for in your life.

I’m a pretty big believer in trial-and-error learning. I learn best by screwing things up. To me it’s the most honest approach to looking at who you are and what you’re actually capable of.

3 Comments

While I agree with most of what you have written, I wish you had touched on more about your vision for the “ideal life”. Most of us do not make the amount of money that we had wished for early on, that would allow us to have the things we wished for, or to do the things we wanted to. We all get caught up in that vicious trend. “Keeping up with the Jones’ , I think it is called. You have been gracious enough to wear your life on your sleeve for all to see and many of your friends and fans have learned very valuable lessons from that. In particular, I remember a move to an island not to long ago that turned into a complete disaster as nothing was actually as it seemed or as promised. In fact it was “lies” for the most part. That you shared with the world, once again wearing your life on your sleeve for all to see. Life lesson learned, life lesson shared.

My point being that making mounds of money is great for certain aspects of life, but the true meaning of wealth is, it gives us “options”. You have a wealth beyond a monetary value, you have a god given talent that so many of us envy. The ability to create. You and I did not grow up together, have not known each other that long and have not even physically met for that matter, but in the time we have shared, it feels like I have known you all my life. I have seen through your eyes magical places and things, I never dreamed possible. You have taken many of us to places we can only go with your direction. Take your current project “Islands of Chaos”, that mystical destination you are about to take us on in the very near future. This is a vision that could only come from the mind of Erik Reichenbach. It is your style, your talent and your dream set to motion for the world to visit.

These talents are what many would bend over backwards to acquire. In so many ways you are one of the richest people I know. You have the talent, a beautiful new wife and and adorable puppy, loyal friends, family and a fan base. You my friend, already have the ideal life in so many ways…. From what I have gathered in the time I have known you, your life is “Islands of Chaos” daily. But in so many ways, it works for you, keeps you driven and allows us to learn from it. Keep up the hard work. It is, and will continue to pay off for you.. Great job!… Hi Dana!….:)

Thank you for the detailed compassionate reply John, and I completely agree with you on the aspect of wealth, value, worth. I feel I’m a very rich man! I suppose I didn’t focus as much as I would have liked on the main topic I’m trying to express here… that we all “lie” or “omit” the truth about our own feelings towards others to appease people, save face, or “Compete with the Jones”.

What I suppose this blog is all about is saying that you can shape your “image” or feelings online, through a blog, through a painting… hell, anything you have a hand in creating, editing, producing, designing, etc. but you have to be truthful with yourself.

Shaping the way your “Brand” looks from a company or business standpoint is profitable and an art form in itself (a creative process I want to get more involved in); but, I think when we hold ourselves to such impossible standards that we see in the media and society we start a kind of “double think” where we live a lie. People are not easily put into boxes with labels on them.

I value the ability in myself and in others to be earnest with themselves and not cling to idealized versions of what they should be.